Shit. Did this qualify as saying something? But Andrea’s meeting wasn’t official. She was also caught so off guard—it was the attacker they needed to worry about. “Is there security at the school?” she asked. “Are we sure the kids are safe?”

“The kids are safe,” Allegra repeated. “How about we focus on you for a second, okay? Because you might know something that’ll help us catch this person. Make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

So Andrea told the officer she’d gone to see Piper just for a check-in the day before—she was new to the area. She didn’t get into it beyond that. Then he asked her to walk through the attack today. Why was she back at the school? Why was she in that hallway? Andrea muddled through those questions, saying she and the other moms were early to pickup and had some administrative questions. Did she see anyone in the hall? No, Andrea said. Especially not someone who hurt Piper. “And then I fainted,” she explained. “Sometimes that happens, because of low blood sugar.”

“Or out of fear,” Allegra said, meeting her gaze. “Sure you didn’t see anything?”

Andrea tipped her head toward the ceiling, staring at a water stain on the tiles. “I wish I did.”

“You know anyone who might be motivated to hurt Ms. Jovan?”

Bringing up the notes crossed Andrea’s mind—it felt wrong to leave them out, and yet she still didn’t know what to make of them. Was Lauren right in that Piper was intimidating all of them so they wouldn’t be part of her documentary? Was there a chance that by not talking about the messages, Andrea was obstructing justice somehow? After all, it could have been another parent who’d snuck in after Piper and hurt her, pushed to the brink even more than they were. But how would they ever know who it was? Did Piper keep a list?

It made her uncomfortable to have to make such a critical decision on the spot. It reminded her of the last time she was in an interrogation room: after Roger’s dad dragged him out of the hotel room. He’d called the police, of course. Said Andrea coerced his underage child into going upstate. The officer who met Andrea said that considering who she was, it might be easier to bring her down to the station and question her in private, away from the reporters. Once at the station, they’d asked Andrea what she was doing in a hotel room with a girl so young.

“It’s not what you think,” Andrea said. “We were . . . helping each other.”